Having just completed my next-to-last semester for the master’s of divinity program, and since I have a one-week intermission, I thought I should post an update.
In the Summer session, I completed a course on early modern church history, from just before the Reformation through the 18th century. Though I had just completed a whole course on the Reformation, I still learned a lot more about it and its aftermath, which was quite fascinating. During that course, I also interviewed a Catholic priest, recorded the whole thing, and typed up a transcript of it. Before knowing I’d have to do that, I had already interviewed not one, but two Orthodox priests, one in person, the other on the phone. That was quite interesting and enjoyable, and I told my professor I’d really like to do a lot of that sort of thing. It was very enlightening, and I think it’s also good for the sake of mutual understanding.
I really think that the Church universal has lost a lot by the two big schisms we’ve experienced, from the Orthodox in around 1054 AD and from the Roman Catholic Church in around 1517. There are things that a majority of Christians believed and many things we disagreed on, and sometimes, I think we’ve lost a balanced view by separating from one another. In some ways, we’re all still Christians, just separated in our ways of worship and so forth. But in some other ways, you could even say we’re not all the Christian Church at all, but three different “Christian religions.” What I mean by that is, the way we even express what it means to be a Christian differs so dramatically, and how we believe a Christian should and can live is also so distinct in the different “branches” of the Church, that you could say we’re not the same “Church” at all.
One thing I can say about studying church history, however, is that it does tend to really make you think about what you believe and why. If our forefathers and mothers in the faith really argued and separated over some of these issues, and many were even tortured or died for these things, what do we believe about them? Do we even know what the issues were/are? Are they important to us today? I find that often, modern American Christians no longer even know or care, and I think that is sad. I also think it means we don’t know what Christianity really is or is supposed to be sometimes.
The other course I just completed was called “The Writings” or, to use the Hebrew word, Ketuvim. The Old Testament is divided into three sections, the Law, “Torah,” which is the five books of Moses, the Prophets or “Neviim,” and the writings or “Ketuvim.” That’s why Jews called the Hebrew Bible the Tanakh, Ta for Torah, Na for Nabi (prophet) or Neviim (prophets), and the Kh for Ketuvim. We had about 1000 pages of reading for this course, and it was really just a broad overview, but I still learned a lot. I had to do involved exegesis (study to draw out the meaning) of a passage in Ezra and another in Daniel. I really learned a lot about the period of time when Israel was carried away into exile in Babylon, which continued into the era of the Persian Empire, which was then taken over by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. Developments during that period really set the stage for when Jesus came on the scene, and help us understand the world He came into and ministered in.
I haven’t gotten my final grades yet, but have gotten all A’s so far on my assignments. I sure hope I get an A on the Daniel exegesis, because I must’ve spent about 40 hours on it. Of course, whatever grade she gives me, I know I learned a lot by doing it, so I suppose that alone is enough to make it worthwhile.
Another thing we learned in that class was how the Bible is realistic (I have taught that for years, but it was good to hear it affirmed.) For example, in the psalms, we read complaints to God, laments about how terrible things are, questions to God, why Lord? There are psalms which are lovely and inspire us, psalms that speak of the blessings of God when all is ideal. But there are also many psalms of “disorientation” and lament. One author we read spoke of how this needs to be taught in American churches, because we often live in denial, or come across like if you’re with God, everything should go well, you should be “blessed” and should never even confess anything negative. Not what the Bible teaches!
In the same vein, we learned about what’s called “pessimistic wisdom” in books like Job and Ecclesiastes. In those books we see that life isn’t always just black and white, and easy to figure out. It’s just not always true that righteous people have wonderful lives where everything works out wonderfully for them, while “wicked” people who don’t love God suffer. Oh no, not at all! Often there appears to be no rhyme or reason to things in the world. Wonderful people die early, struck down by senseless violence or disease, where worldly, ungodly people are rich, famous, and enjoying life. It was so cool to see how scripture addresses all these sorts of things. It doesn’t answer all our questions, but it does let us know we’re not somehow different. We’re not necessarily being punished or reaping some sort of consequences for a generational curse we know nothing about. No, we’re perfectly normal. Life is just like that sometimes, even for “wonderful Christians”!
I’m now heading into my last (Fall) semester before graduation, Lord willing! I’ll be taking a course on internet marketing, which I hope will help me with my website. I’ll also be taking a spiritual formation course, intended to help me sort out all I’ve learned and set myself on track for what comes next in life. I also have to do a supervised ministry project, meant to give me some practical experience in ministry, as if I’ve never done any ministry before! I tried to get out of it, but alas! What I proposed for my project has me worried. I don’t know how I’m going to pull it off over here, cut off from all connections with churches or people. But I’ve decided to try and come up with a course I can teach to secular people to orient them to the Bible.
You know how, in public libraries, for example, they offer courses sometimes for people who know nothing about the IPhone or the internet, or computers? Well, it seems to me there must be a lot of people like that regarding the Bible. We’re a very unchurched and biblically illiterate society nowadays, according to all the polls and studies I’ve read. (It’s shocking, since today we have more resources for learning about the Bible than in all of history.) My idea is to come up with a course I can teach in libraries, prisons, (I don’t know, anywhere they’ll let me in!) to “orient” people to the Bible. What is this book? How did it come about? Who wrote it and when? Why do some people think it’s the Word of God? What’s in it? How’s it organized? If I’ve never read it, where do I start? What am I supposed to get out of it? I’m hoping to get some people together that I can teach about these things. For the project, I also have to design the course, meet with focus groups to see what they’d like to learn, find a place or places to teach it, all that sort of thing.
My greatest fear/difficulty is, I moved away from everyone I know, have no home church here, no connections or places I can go to teach this, so how will I set that up? You could pray for me in that regard. At this point, I have a supervisor, a person who’s agreed to watch over me during this and evaluate me. And Lynn helped me come up with the overall plan for what I must do by when, etc. But all the rest is totally up in the air at this point. Help, Lord!
In other news, Lynn and I will celebrate our 38th Anniversary at the end of this month. Our daughter Allison and family have moved from Germany to Ft. Benning, Georgia, our son Tim is getting married at the end of September, our daughter Sarah and her husband are hugely busy with business and church in Lakeland, and our youngest daughter Rachel and her husband are going on with their lives in Lakeland, Florida as well. At this point, we don’t know if we’ll be staying in Homosassa when I graduate or selling the house and moving elsewhere. Life is exciting, I guess. (Or is it terrifying? Not sure!)
Till next time, please pray for us, and email or write if you can. We always enjoy hearing from you.
May the Lord bless you,
Warren and Lynn